In the midterm elections, Utah, Michigan, Missouri, and North Dakota passed laws allowing, to different degrees, marijuana to be legally grown, possessed, and sold. North Dakoda’s new law, the most far-reaching of the bunch, has virtually no strings attached. But then once upon a time, no law had its potential hooks in marijuana.  What happened?

Many understand that after the Civil War the federal republic entered into its national state and its far-reaching hand began to “govern” the nation. It believed it knew what was best for the states, which were effectively no more than counties in relation to what would become known as “Uncle Sam.”  It had to protect the states from themselves. Moreover, it had to protect the people from themselves. Now, not limited by federal restrictions, it could manage the people and they had little chance to escape.

By the end of the 19^th century, a flood of laws from our "Uncle” poured upon us from Washington and items which could be routinely purchased at any drug store, over-the-counter, or off-the-shelf, came under the watchful eye of the national government. Opiates and cocaine needed to be regulated. Within a few years, alcohol became public enemy number one, resulting in the greatest government boondoggle in the twentieth century, prohibition.

The government always loves a crisis because it can respond and be seen in a heroic effort to overcome it, even if it is the cause, which it usually is. Soon a new national agency, the Bureau of Narcotics, was formed within the Treasury Department.

But no crisis actually existed. There was simply a spate of “new” crimes, because something previously legal became, at the pronouncement of the national government, illegal.

A wily Federal bureaucrat, Harry J. Anslinger, had promoted the Bureau of Narcotics as an enforcement agency with himself as head of it in order to expand his governmental authority and his prominence. Although new illegal activities as a result of now illegal opium and cocaine came under the Bureau's control, they were relatively few. Therefore, the magic of marijuana, widely grown and used as cannabis, for hemp, as well as its smoking use, largely by Mexicans came under the control of Anslinger and the Bureau of Narcotics.

Intensely supported by the powerful and wealthy William Randolph Hearst and his hatred of Mexicans, marijuana became “The Devil’s Weed” and Anslinger was able to ultimately become the father of a massive government bureaucracy (DEA) that has become as powerful as some national armies.  This bureau’s virtually unfettered force has directed no-knock warrants against innocent citizens and declared war on drug gangs worldwide that would not exist were it not for the now illegal status of a hemp, which had been a common and useful fiber for centuries.

Not unlike during Prohibition, armies of drug gangs have now developed, chasing profits that would not exist except for the fact that a plentiful product has been driven to a high cost by the governments’ making the supply illegal.

Those armies of gangsters arising during prohibition became the kernel of crime families in the U.S. that still exist today. Today drug cartels such as the Tijuana cartel, the Gulf cartel, and the Sinaloa cartel and their spin-offs will be with us forever.  

The rash of laws recently passed throughout the U.S. decriminalizing a once legal product could be the tip of the iceberg regarding the elimination of a government-knows-best policy for the people. Perhaps the people can once again go into a store and buy a product of their choice for their own reasons. Perhaps the future will reclaim the past. But only perhaps.

What about the national government and its armies -- the DEA, et al? What will they do?  Not to worry. The government will always find a crisis -- especially if it has already been funded.

With relegalization of marijuana spreading, it doesn’t mean you are safe from “Uncle Sam’s” protection. The new crisis is upon us. The opioid crisis. And not even your doctor is safe. And as long as there is a national government instead of a federal one, there will be nowhere to escape.